I like to experiment with the budgets, trying out different ways that people used long ago. This above is a 1932 budget that I did show in a blog post several years ago. This was a young couple with a baby. They lived in Arizona in a big city.
We all should keep track of our expenses and budget. We must know how much our expenses are and how much we spend. We always want to spend less than we bring in each month.
By going through this 1932 budget book I could see how this young couple kept track of spending and tried to save money. The head of this household had a steady job with the railroad. They did start getting into financial trouble when they started purchasing things that caused more monthly bills. At first they did not have an ice box and they bought one. During these years many people still had ice delivery for their non electric ice box.
They recorded the purchase of their first radio. Then they had to purchase a Aerial Eliminator, next they paid for a radio connection. Several months later they had to purchase a radio tube. There was no television and it was a big deal to get a radio. People frequently went to the movies. They would document their spending as Show 10 cents or whatever cost it was. I can tell in my books when someone got electricity or their first phone. There was a fee to get one and there was also a first time fee for a radio transmission.
So let us go back further in time...
The year 1908 this is very light because it has faded pencil...
They had a $9.00 budget for groceries and household expenses and at the bottom of the pages were Rent and Gas and fees.
Above we move forward to 1910
And then jump ahead to 1937. This book has many changes and handwriting as if two different people record in the book.
At first in the early years of the book their budget started at $9.00 and then when they got to 1910 their money on hand dropped to $7.00. This changed through the years and when they got to the 1930s they were at $40.00 for money on hand which was money they could spend. They often spent more than they had and there were years of gaps of recording in their book. They did not budget during the early years of the 1930s.
I have not seen this method before where they write the items horizontal.
Still 1937. I decided that I will try this method.
So here we are in June of 2025 I will type this out below since we cannot see it well.
We do not eat out, we do not pick up fast food unless we are in a crisis situation. We do not drink sodas or processed snacks. We try to think ahead and take food with us when we go somewhere that we know we will not be back home to cook. So our food budget reflects that all of our meals, snacks and desserts are made at home.
Starting June 2025
Monday 2nd of June, Sour cream $1.24, frozen broccoli $1.16 x 2, 1 lb ground beef, $6.97, 2- chicken breast, for $7.52, 4 chicken thighs for $9.22, Food Tax, $2.18, Monday another store potatoes $4.99 x 2 = (10 lbs), Elbow Macaroni $8.00 for 4 bags, three tomatoes $2.03, one bell pepper $1.47, 2 cucumbers $5.00 . food tax $2.12. Tuesday, another store, Sweet potatoes, $3.79, sur charge 0.38 cents, state tax 0.13 cents, county tax 0.04 cents, City tax 0.17 cents.
Thursday 5th, Laundry soap, $15.99, Mushrooms 2.50, sourdough bread 4.99, sales tax, 0.72, food tax 0.60.
Monday 9th of the next week, Trash bags $7.44, Tax 0.67cents, Strawberries $4.16, food tax 0.33. Monday another store, pickles $4.19, 1 tomato $1.03, Turkey $13.85, food tax $1.53. Wednesday 11th, Butter $4.76 x 2 boxes , buttermilk $2.94, All P flour $5.24, Thin steak $11.03, baking chocolate $9.96, $3.10, another store for Wednesday, Gorilla epoxy $5.98, Mattress cover $9.97, tax $1.44.
Thursday 12th, pharmacy $6.98, freezer bags, $3.63, elbow macaroni $2.99 (increased), chicken thighs $6.50 for six, sales tax 0.33, food tax 0.76.
Friday 13th, 12 cans cat food $10.20, trash bags $15.35, sales tax $2.30
June 1, though 16th. $135.83 groceries, $59.36 household, $10.96 food tax, $5.46 sales tax, pet food $10.20, pharmacy $6.98. Without tax $216.35, tax added $232.01 for sixteen days out of June. This is the 16th that I am typing this and no other spending thus far.
I am not trying to not spend to do this budget, this is just our normal spending, I did not even know I was going to do this budget post. I took my receipts and what I had already written down vertically and changed it to the horizontal method. I was shocked at the space saved.
When I need to cut back, I can cut back and I know that we will have to cut back more if prices keep rising. We try to eat as healthy as we can afford. We are not running to the store a lot to purchase food as it seems, Charles is already in grocery stores during the week because of his job so he picks up what we need.
This will be changing though because he will be retiring, and then we will be going back to shopping less often and probably once a week so our fresh food does not spoil. We live close to grocery stores. His boss keeps asking him to stay longer so he keeps bumping it back but he is getting tired now so he will be retiring soon. They did cut his hours back a little so this has helped him to stay longer.
Our pantry, refrigerator, freezer overlap the weeks so we keep up and not have the burden of an expensive week or month. This is how they did it in the past when they could, they kept staples and when you have staples you can make those simple meals that fill the belly when needed. It takes work and careful spending to keep a back stock. An extra can of this and that when you buy groceries to put some back, and extra bag of flour or sugar. An extra bag of coffee until you have that put back and then when you use one you buy one but you always have that other one or two or three on the shelf. Look for the specials buy one get one but make sure they are really a special.
Outages can occur, it is important to keep extra food and supplies. If we have some put back that does not mean leave it there, make sure to rotate it out putting the newly purchased one to the back depending on the date. Pull the older one forward but always keeping something back.
People can get in financial trouble for various reasons, it is so important to run a household properly so we can keep track of our money.
I know there are cheaper brands, and we do buy some of them but we are a family with food allergies, immune issues and need to be careful with brands that we purchase.
We used part of the sour cream for macaroni garden salad. We make our own homemade mayonnaise which also goes into that. I started making Macaroni garden salad in the 1960s when that recipe became popular. I like to make it when the garden starts making cucumbers which they started this past week and I am glad because those 2 for $5.00 cucumbers fifteen days ago were expensive. Tomatoes and bell peppers also go into that dish. It is a good cold summer meal. It doesn't require the oven and only the macaroni needs to be boiled.
All it is, is boiled and drained macaroni, diced cucumber, bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, sour cream, mayonnaise, salt and pepper. Make it in the amounts you like or how many will be eating it. Put more or less of what you want in it, taste as you go. You can use canned tomatoes (drained) if you do not have fresh. I usually make up a bowl of it and we have it for about three days.
We bought some steak to try Clara's great depression steak meal (I showed last week) but this week we did not have salad but fresh cucumbers. Clara used very thin steak. I am talking about Clara on Great Depression cooking you tube channel. She also has a book, videos. Her grandson filmed her when she was in her 90's. She passed away several years ago but we continue to learn from Clara.
We turned that $11.03 steak into four meals and put three of them in the freezer. We have found out that we like lentils and rice together as Clara made. Lentils and rice are a very good thing to stock up on in our pantry or cupboard. I won't buy that often because that amount of money could be better spent on chicken, pork or beef. I could spend the $11.03 and make hamburger patties and freeze them.
My mother in law always kept hamburger patties in her freezer and if someone came over she would take some out and whip up a quick meal. She would make a hamburger on white bread, some mashed potatoes and garden peas that she kept in her freezer. That was her go to meal and if you showed up, that was what you got. :) She bought the box of hamburger patties, from Quick Check, which turned to Winn Dixie. I do not even know if they sell them like that anymore. I make my own patties, this way I know what is in them.
We divided the chicken breast, thighs and ground beef into serving portions and put that in the freezer that should last us through the month. We had eggs left over from last month and we will probably purchase eggs soon. we still have plenty of butter left.
I am on the fence about the way to do the budget, horizontal or vertical. This new way saves a lot of paper space. The most important part is to write "Everything" that we spend down on paper and know where our money is going. Never spend more than what comes in.
I would like to add that I do these studies, but I still keep my main budget the way I am used to doing. I like to try the different versions to see how my budget fits into their time and I learn a lot from doing this.
I have picked up some good ideas, but mainly I enjoy the study of long ago and how they lived, it brings calm.
I hope to see you up in the forum, I wish I could share the books so you could sit down and look at them, it definitely makes us think. If you have any questions just ask. Let me know how your week has been and if you have made any changes or are getting a better vintage feel.
Grandma Donna
